Robert Hughes trial: alleged victim accused of leaking information to the Sunday Telegraph

Court Reporter

A media scrum surrounds Robert Hughes as he leaves the Downing Centre. Photo: Ben Rushton

A woman who was allegedly groped by Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes on the set of the show has been accused of leaking confidential information about another of the actor's alleged victims and the ongoing police investigation to a News Ltd journalist.

The woman, who cannot be identified, is giving evidence in Mr Hughes' ongoing trial on 11 child sex charges in the Downing Centre District Court.

Were you trying to influence the investigation? Were you trying to get the public on side?

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

It is alleged that, during the course of the 10 years the woman spent on the show, Mr Hughes exposed himself to her backstage on one occasion and groped her in his dressing room on another.

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On Wednesday the court heard that, while the police investigation into Mr Hughes was taking place in 2011, the woman was giving information to a journalist from the Sunday Telegraph on an ongoing basis.

Some of this information allegedly came from an officer involved in the police investigation.

The woman conceded that she had told the Sunday Telegraph journalist the name of the school that one of Mr Hughes' other alleged victims had attended, and the name of the school attended by another young woman connected to the case.

There was also evidence that she tried to assist the journalist in making contact with another alleged victim.

"Why were you telling the Sunday Telegraph reporter this information?" Mr Hughes' lawyer, Greg Walsh, asked the woman during a lengthy cross-examination.

"Were you trying to influence the investigation? Were you trying to get the public on side?" he continued.

"I guess I was upset at that point," the woman said.

The court heard that when the reporter asked the woman what angle he should take in his story, she replied "maybe touch on rumours - someone might come forward".

Mr Walsh then put it to the woman that she "had a contact within the investigating police and he was giving you information about the case ... and you were passing it on to a journalist".

She replied: "No, I didn't have a contact giving me information within the police."

Mr Walsh then produced an email between the woman and the journalist in which she said: "My police contact has gone on vacation."

She claimed this was simply a reference to a "liaison officer".

In another email, she said: "Did you find a Facebook page for the school? I just don't want the cops to trace it back to me."

Mr Walsh said to her: "You knew that you were doing something very wrong - revealing information about the police investigation."

"People ask me questions all the time," the woman replied.

In another email, the journalist asked the woman whether her source was "Paul Jacob" - an apparent reference, the court heard, to the head of the investigation, Detective Inspector Paul Jacob.

"No, it was Peter," the woman replied.

Mr Walsh put it to the woman that this was a reference to one of the detectives involved in the investigation, Detective Peter Malone.

"It may have been Peter Malone, but I can't say in this context," the woman replied.